THE SIN OF GREED
The cackle is accompanied by an echoing applause. soldiers' fast marches can be heard running towards it and their grunts signifying their attacks, all followed up by their screams and their bodies falling down on the ground. The confident footstep continued to walk towards him, rain starts to pour down and it was not water. The door gets destroyed by a massive force but Death did not flinch, and from it Mammon steps outside with hands open. Mammon is twice the height of his father, he moves around showing off his new and improve body.
"What do we have here?"
Death scoffs and turns his back on Mammon and walks away. Mammon stops him from moving away with the power of Omniloqui, he freezes on his place as Mammon turns to his father. His horns has grown longer and he carries a sword with him, he shows it off as one if his prized treasure.
"Excalibur, corrupted a bit actually, how are you Father?"
"Very good, you?"
"Incredible, I just knocked out 5 old bones and massacred so many soldiers coming towards m-"
With his stare along Mammon's top half bursts into nothingness, Death looks down and wipes the blood off his face. The blood start to accumulate around him and builds up Mammon's destroyed upper-half, he's face turned from shock and back to that annoying cackle. He grabs Death's hand mocked him by pulling it towards his own face and making expressions, he looks back to Death and he laughs as well.
"Let me do this Father, You cannot kill me, sadly... actually no one can, not right now anyways, I hear your putting on an army, with those puppets?"
"Right, of course"
"Why did you have to lie?"
"You were listening"
"Yes, and I guess Mephistopheles really is dead huh?"
Death softly nods and so did the massive Demon. Mammon creates a trident from his own blood and pierces it through ground. Layers of the trident starts to seep into the ground.
"Father"
"Yes?"
"Why are you such a liar?"
Mammon turns to him and his face is creepy, he opened his eyes wide open with his mouth curved. He stared directly to Death trying to enter his mind, but it does not work. Death laughed at the attempt and called it 'cute', he taps his back but it burns him. Death continued to walk away as he is unaffected by the Omniloqui earlier, he just laughs as Mammon attempts to hold him in place.
"Is this really the world that you would start your invasion?"
"Well, I'm here to destroy the schools, actually.... I already did, or doing"
"That Omniloqui, those words will never work on someone like me, I bet you do not even understand the powers that it carries"
"The ability to create a world out of nothing"
"That is a pathetic compared to its real capability, you disappoint me boy"
Coming from all directions Death starts to hear shrieks and cries, he grabs his head trying to focus where it comes from and to his horror it came from all of the schools, and the villages around the Underworld.
"Lairs, how many have you created?"
"Too many, with this tongue"
The ground has holes in it and lower-demons starts to appear and kill all of the student, they spared none as they attack the surrounding villages. Death looked at Mammon who is enjoying the rain, he flies up into the air with his vulture-like wings and sent out a command.
"Heed my temptation and influence over the people who are impurified by the Sin Of Greed, those who wish for everything, those who are corrupted by their own selfish desire shall destroy everything on its path in order to achieve what they want, I shall reward you with your greatest desire! DO NOT CALM YOURSELVES, YOU HAVE THE POWER TO DO IT"
The people around the Underworld who hear him starts to go insane, starting to say what they want in repetitions, and starting to ravage everything and everyone. They lose control of themselves, others starts to steal things even people, they take weapons and kill, steal gold, Greedy.
Some of the students in the schools starts to turn to this sin, and with that Mammon grows stronger and Fadil and Diara starts to grow weak. Their skin starts to age as they gather their real power, Raijin who watches over them worry in fear, he puts his hand on their backs and gives them some of his imperium and they resumed siphoning their whole power.
"I am sorry for this young one"
"Do not be Lady Diara, it is my pleasure to be of aid to your kind"
Diara, The Commandment of Repose, starts to grow weaker. As greed infused chaos runs rampant her power grows weak, Raijin fuses more imperium towards her way. Fadil is affected but not as much as her sister's.
*What is he doing?*
Mammon floats down beside his father.
"This is the nature, of the creatures that our mother created, they pretend they are satisfied with the things they have, but they are not. They will be restless unless they achieve what they want, they think it is for the best, but it is not"
"Why do you think so?"
"Colonization, that is an example, a whole race was enslaved in order for them to be rich... And everything bad comes from greed, because of the 2 people mother created, the world was divided one for those who are corrupted, easily swayed.. And others who are the exact same"
"hm"
"We were created to teach them why we are bad, what was that?! There are times when sin is justifiable, but in the end it is still a sin, and being bad feels so good, father"
"....."
The 2 stopped and just stood there, Death continues to hear the screams echo around him, shaking him to his core. Those who are innocent are turned into sinners, but there are some who stayed the same and stops them.
"No Reapers are allowed to cross this boundary, this aether, because the people here are pure"
"Why are you reciting the oath, father?"
"hmm, My Legion cannot enter this world"
"Mhm, now I am powerful here, but on the surface, I am weak... I need to enter the aether but half of my power gets sucked away, but purity here father, where?"
"Where did we go wrong?" Death completed his son's words, a warm and gentle word coming from someone associated with the cold death.
"Don't know, I guess this is goodbye, fa-"
Harriet appears in front of them as Mammon swings his claws towards him, she came with help. The other 6 Elites jumps on it as well. Zora, a young man and one of the Invoker of the squad flies on top whilst firing down arrows, he uses his clairvoyance in order to get a much clearer and faster shot. Esra, the second invoker and also a marksman just like Zora, he uses a rifle that fires homing bullets to the enemy whose aura his eyes lock on.
"There are still good people" Death said as he walked away and vanished into thin air, Mammon took this opportunity to fight the Elites. He grabbed his trident and engages in battle with them.
"Let us see what you have"
The combination of the 7 different attacks managed to kept Mammon at bay, he does not want to use any attack that would require him to use imperium as his other siblings might feel it and go after him, he can kill one of them if that were to happen but it will take time, and time is currently not on his side, and for this mission.
"I'll have my fun with you"
He turned back town into a human, and as he shifts his body 3 of the Elites came in to attack him with all their might. Aloisa, who wielded a gauntlet pins Mammon's left leg down, Aaron who wields a pike stabs her weapon through his left abdomen to his right forearm and holds him down, the last Celena uses water to freeze the lower part of his body.
"Dawn, seal him"
"Gotcha"
Dawn and the only sorcerer of the team, raises his hands. He puts it together in a triangle shape with his thumbs, index and middle fingers intersecting one another. A 4 sealing element with air, earth, wind, and lightning is used to seal the demon's body, Mammon just allows them to do as they please.
"Interesting, so this is how weak you kids are?"
The air moves around his body making it hard to move, so the others easily grab their weapons and move away, the water covers his whole face, stone pillars erected and a lightning strikes Mammon directly sealing him.
"You think that's enough?" Harriet said in a panicked tone/
"Harriet, snap out of it, I sealed him"
"We can't be sure, all of us must head to each school and try to save the others"
"How?"
"The Commandment of Repose and Selflessness are still alive, but they are not here on the Overworld nor Underworld, meaning their authority is weak, the other Archangels are not here either because they are still undergoing the Rekindling process, all of you 6 go to the different affected areas and bring everyone back, they can still be brought back to our light"
"Of course"
"I can stay here if you want, I can easily reseal him"
"That won't be necessary, I can handle a demon"
"Good Luck Ma'am"
"You guys as well"
They all flew in different directions as quickly as they can, Harriet summons clones of her with different long and ranged weapons surrounding the sealed demon. She can still feel him living inside, his heart beating loudly.
"So all of them are in there"
"....."
"I can still hear all of you"
Mammon moves one of his finger and he absorbs the seal itself to his own skin, her clones strikes him but his skin cannot be pierced so easily. His presence was the same as Lucifer's, the one that they fought was only his will, he grabs her by the neck and lifts her high. Mammon stands on the edge of the cliff where the castle stands.
"Dropping you will be useless, but throwing you won't be"
"....."
Mammon lifts her high up as he prepares to throw her, she remained calm the whole time. With all his strength he threw Harriet down on the ground and all see can she in the spur of the moment is the ground. That's all she can see, her fate has been decided by the ground and nothing more, a throw so strong than her reaction and realization was slower than time itself. She closed her eyes and accepted her fate that this will be how she dies, a sudden and quick throw.
"Are you okay?"
"Wha- Raijin?"
"Yeah, I caught you, are you okay?"
"How did you c-"
"That does not matter, we have to weaken him, the sisters literally have minutes until their back at their Prime, we need to weaken him and if possible we kill him"
"Yeah, he is not exactly a human he just takes for of one"
Raijin picks her back up and pats the dirt off her clothes, something so unnecessary in this time but she still appreciated it.
"Logan says he's sorry, for spitting blood on you"
"hmm... I don't really care, he was cool.. Right, you take the lead, or should I?"
"You should, it seems in your suspension you dealt with demons, or lower ones at least"
"Yeah, none of them are as strong as this one"
The couple looked up and Mammon is already flying above them with his trident. The blood rain stopped and the sky is pure red.
"Aww, Love, so b-"
"We're not dating!"
"Now is not the time, what-"
"What?" The demon replied.
"I said, we're not dating! You have that powerful mouth or voice power but your hearing sucks!"
"You really love provoking people?"
"Right"
"If you want me to use my Imperium, I won't"
"I thought you want to be powerful, drawing more attention to you-"
"Shut it"
"Okay"
He moves his hand behind him and Harriet notices it, she holds firmly onto his hand.
"There's a village south of us made of stone, I'll turn both of us to electricity all you have to do is hold onto to me"
"Okay, I trust you"
"Thank you"
Raijin took a few deep breathes and moves forward, he starts to rub his palms on his chest quickly like an idiot. The 2 just looks at him doubting whatever he will do, Mammon got bored and attacks Raijin but he misses.
"Where, did they go?"
"He-"
Raijin lands a slap on his face and then disperses into the air, every turn that Mammon does he gets slap, it does not hurt him but it surely annoys him with every turn his head gets. He gets slapped, punched, kicked to every direction he moves or even looks at, Raijin's speed can be matched by Mammon but he predicts his movement as he controls his whole body. There is still a movement that everyone makes when they are hit in a certain direction and Raijin uses that, he hits the opposite of the demon's sight line so that he won't caught on to him and gets stuck in the omniloqui.
"RAAAAAAAH!"
"SHUT UP!"
Mammon grabs onto Raijin's hand in an interesting way, both hands are interlocking. Mammon pushes it and attempts to break Raijin's hand, the man starts to scream in pain the hard the demon pushes it to the point of it breaking, but it does not seem to snap. His little screams turned into laughs as he kept going.
"You should see yourself right now"
Mammon blinks a few times and he is holding his own hands the whole time, he smells an odor that is new to him.
"Yeah its this plants, this things here, it tastes weird but, it does the job"
"You have been spreading the smell?"
"No, I was just rubbing it on your head, the smell will wear off within a month from how much I used on you, if you actually get to live to smell it"
Mammon continues to blink until the 2 of them has disappeared, annoyed at the mockery that he was put through he does not want to let Raijin go. He chases after them when he sees the smallest hint of one of their imperium. He arrives at a stone village, but abandoned and in ruins, he looks around to see if he can spot the aura once more but he cannot nor can he feel it. He flies up and looks up from there but nothing as well, as he looks around a bolt of lightning flies directly to his head but he stops it.
"Tch, that hurt... why did that hurt... Oh, wh-"
Mammon falls down as his body starts to feel weak and heavy, he moves his arms but it hurts.
"We got him"
"What did you do?"
"I was hitting him, and at the same time I was taking a bit of his Imperium... I actually still is, using the elemental permeation, I can make a connection between us that is so small yet so strong, so basically I'm siphoning his dark imperium and fusing it with mine"
"Are you sure nothing will happen to you?"
"Yeah. The line that the imperium travels on is like filtering it for me, I need his imperium"
"Why?"
"I thought you were going to ask how, but I guess I have to answer for why"
"what are you saying?"
"I have no more life force actually, its the only thing that imperium cannot repair, I died during my awakening, but I read something about Ruth's ancestors and understanding the principle of spreading and maintaining a certain amount of imperium, only Eir or the Archangels are capable of restoring life forces... I'm basically a doll with Imperium, but I can still live for like a long time until my body starts to weaken when taking in Imperium, that is why I still look young"
"What happened to you?"
"What is the only being that is capable of taking souls?"
"Angels and Demons?"
"No, just demons actually, I was a vessel, like Logan, for that same demon when he starts to roam the earth, I was just in the Overworld living a normal life, until a demon, the sin of envy possessed me and took my soul away, meaning so did my life force, I have imperium in me and I just used it automatically and forced myself into an awakening"
"....."
"I think that's why I hate Logan, not for neglecting his parents but, he's still alive, and that a demon willingly gave his heart to him.. a stupid reason to be angry about"
"So you have no heart?"
Raijin unbuttons his vest down to his shirt and opened it up, he grabs Harriet's hand and put it on his chest. She checks for a heartbeat, but there is none, all she feels is the Imperium coursing through his body keeping him alive. She also just noticed his cold body, as if he is dead.
"Demons takes heart and along with it the soul, how cruel"
"Well I-"
"There you are, you 2 talk loudly"
Raijin suddenly gets pulled towards Mammon and his trick has been discovered. He gets pinned down to the ground and a massive portion of his imperium suddenly got sucked away. His body shuts down and all he can see was Harriet fighting the greedy demon all by herself.
*Stop it, please*
He can see her fighting with everything she have in order to save him, but as everything starts to be taken away from him, his body hurts and his own consciousness has given up on him. He slowly closes his eyes as his vision blurs, and all he can see is total darkness, just him in the abyss floating around.